The number of responses you receive to your email is always based on the number of people who opened your email.

Obviously, Open Rates are impacted by how well you’re treating your list, as well as how compelling your subject line is, but there’s one other factor that dramatically affects Open Rates:

Time of Day Sent!

You want to make sure you’re sending your emails at the best time of day for your list. And EVERY list has a best time of day where a higher percentage of emails are opened.

Remember… more opens = more response!

According to a recent survey:

- 23.63% of all email opens occur within the first hour after delivery
- 9.52% in the 2nd hour (more than 50% dropoff!)
- 6.33% in the 3rd hour
- 4.8% in the 4th hour
- 5 hours after delivery, the results drop more than 90%

How do you figure out the best time of day for your list?

TEST!

Starting around the 1:00 p.m. local hour (good time for most lists) send out emails at different times of day and keep track of the first-hour Open Rates. You can also test different days of the week.

In AWeber, you can set up a split test where the same email goes to 1/3 of your list at three different times of the day.

After some testing, you should see a definite ideal window for your list emerge where Open Rates are higher than other times of the day.

Doing this doesn’t make the email message itself any better, but a 10% response rate from 150 opens is significantly better than a 10% response rate from 90 opens.

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2. Your subscriber forwarded your email to friends and colleagues – since the email is still coded for the original subscriber specifically, each open by a friend or colleague counts as an open for the subscriber.

3. Your subscriber has a preview pane activated in their email program – This is the most likely culprit for opens in the double digits. Whenever the preview pane shows the first few lines of your email, it counts as an open.

So, what can you do?

Rather than look at the total opens, make sure to check your Unique Opens. That will tell you how many PEOPLE opened your email at least once, rather than the number of times.

If your email broadcasting service doesn’t show Unique Opens, you may want to look into AWeber. In my opinion, they’re the gold standard, and the provider I use for all of my list building and email marketing.

Not too long ago, selling on the internet was easy. You could mail to your list, have a few friends mail to their lists for you, and you were well on your way to a six or seven-figure product launch.

Now, however, those launches are rare. The gurus are struggling and their lists aren’t pulling the way they used to.

Why?

Because they burned their list! They didn’t take care of their subscribers!

There are two schools of thought in list building and email marketing. The first says list building is a numbers game. Build as big a list as you possibly can and play the percentages. Get as much as you can out of that list in as short a period of time as possible.

In other words, screw your subscribers. Just make money.

The second school of thought says list building is all about the relationships. It says you don’t need a huge list to do huge numbers if your small list knows you care about them. If they know you’re not going to recommend any crappy product that crosses your path, they’re much more likely to listen and take action when you do recommend something.

If you take care of your list, your list will take care of you.

Like any good, quality relationship, it takes time. It takes nurturing. But if you do it right… if you do it consistently… you can have a list of just a few hundred people, and that list will deliver big numbers for you for months and years to come.

In good times and bad, your list will continue to thrive because it’s not filled with spur-of-the-moment, get rich quick types. It’s filled with quality subscribers who respect you and know you respect them.

In the end, which path you follow is up to you. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a no-brainer.

If you agree, and you’d like some help developing quality lists that deliver over and over again, fill out the form at http://johnsanpietro.info for a free consultation.

An effective call to action is the icing on the cake. It’s the final push your readers need to do the thing you want them to do. Whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for something or just clicking over to your blog, if you don’t have a good call to action, all of the effort you put into writing your email can go to waste.

So, what can you do to make your call to action more effective? Pluralis has three suggestions:

1. Super-Size It

Make your call to action text or button as large as possible without crossing the line of making things seem too crowded.

2. Be Specific

Avoid generic phrases like, ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Register.’ Instead, let the reader know exactly what they’re going to do when they click that button. Phrases like, ‘Create My Account’ and ‘Sign Up For The Class Now’ will have a much higher conversion rate.

3. Use Contrasting Colors

Don’t use colors that blend in. You want your call to action to stand out. Contrasting colors will jump off the page and demand the reader’s attention.

Writing an effective call to action is one of the most overlooked elements of email composition. Spend a little bit of time on it, however, and you’ll see a great return on investment!

When it come to writing emails, we’re always looking for that one thing that will increase our open rates and engagement. Recently, that ‘thing’ has been starting off your subject lines with Re: or FW:

Here’s the problem: Starting off your subject line with Re: is actually a violation of CAN-SPAM rules. And starting off your subject line with FW: will often get your account suspended with many broadcasting services, like iContact.

Why? Let’s be honest… Re: and FW: are used to try and trick your subscriber into thinking the email they’re looking at is either a reply to something they previously sent, or something being forwarded from a friend. It’s a blatant attempt to ‘get in under the radar’ of your readers.

It’s no wonder the broadcasting services are cracking down.

So… what should you do?

Instead of trying to trick your subscribers into opening your emails, give them a real reason to do so.

Write a compelling subject line. Engage them with consistently good, quality content. Basically, show your list a lot of love.

If you just do these three things, you won’t have to worry about getting your emails opened. Your subscribers will jump every time they see your name in their Inbox!

In my Platinum Profit List System digital training, I teach the importance of putting an offer in front of a new mailing list member immediately after they confirm their subscription. My own research has shown a dramatic impact on both short-term and long-term conversions by doing this.

A recent study by eMarketer and Strongmail now proves this further.

54% of those surveyed said being able to set the delivery window of a transactional email increased subscriber engagement. 33% said it increased reveneues.

In addtion, one quarter of those surveyed reported a substantial decrease in conversions after six hours or less!

Over 80% of the subscribers who receive your email will NOT open it if the subject line doesn’t compel them to do so

If nobody is opening your email, then they’re never seeing the marketing message contained within

They’re never clicking on the link to that awesome landing page you’ve created

They’re NEVER buying whatever you’re selling.

Think of your subject line as your one chance to hook them. If you miss, they go away forever.

THAT’S why having an effective email subject line is so important.

Over the years, we’ve tested lots of different email subject lines, and have found the most effective ones are those which lay out the main reason they should open the email by stating exactly what knowledge they’re going to gain by doing so.

We’ve found it more effective when we qualify that benefit with a specific time-frame.

And we’ve found it even more effective when we add when we refer to how they’re going to achieve this benefit.

So, here’s the formula for writing an effective email subject line:

“How To [main benefit] in [time-frame] with [product/service]!”

Some examples:

“How To Lose 10 Pounds In Two Weeks With Your Computer!”

“How To Potty Train Your Child In Seven Days With The Diapers-No-More System!”

You get the idea.

So, next time you’re writing an e-mail, try this effective email subject line formula out. Compare your open rates to previous emails. And let me know how it goes!

Marketing is a science, and one that has been studied for a very long time. We know, for example, which words have the most impact on a potential customer. When we incorporate those words into our email, the result is a higher conversion rate, and more profit.

This week, we’re going to begin looking at the results of a Yale University study on the twelve most persuasive words in the English language. Incorporate them into your business, and you could enjoy even greater success.